UCL raises the neuroscience stakes in a link with French universities

1 February 2006

In a significant development for European higher education and
research, University College London (UCL) today signed a research
alliance agreement with Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) and the
Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), with the ambition of creating a
tri-polar centre of world excellence in the cognitive and
neurosciences.

Over the next five years, UCL, UPMC and the ENS will pool their
expertise and facilities with a view to making significant advances in
the field, working towards a greater understanding of the human brain
and conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease and
psychiatric disorders.

Collaboration has already begun with the setting
up of an ambitious new neuroimaging centre in Saclay near Paris under
the auspices of the French Commissariat d'Energie Atomique (CEA). This
will provide powerful magnets for brain scanning to which UCL
scientists will have direct access. As a result of the alliance, UCL
Vice-Provost Professor Richard Frackowiak will become director of the
department of cognitive sciences at the ENS. Concrete working
relationships are already being established between the Functional
Imaging Laboratory at UCL and a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging facility
at the Salpêtrière Hospital (Faculty of Medicine of Paris VI).

There will be many opportunities for interactions between scientists
in Paris and high profile units such as the Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience and Gatsby Units at UCL. These are especially exciting as
they bring philosophers, mathematicians and physicists together with
biological scientists who measure brain activity with imaging.

Looking to the future, the alliance is planning a
two year Masters in Neuroscience, with one year to be spent in Paris
and one in London. Workshops will be organised with scientists from
both sides of the Channel, and the ambition is that these will promote
joint projects, joint supervision of students and sharing of equipment
and expertise.

"This is a unique opportunity to capitalise on the intellectual
capital we have in Europe," said Professor Frackowiak. "The interface
between scientific disciplines and cultures is often a fertile ground
for making ground-breaking discoveries. We know the brain is the great
frontier and we want to push forward at speed. This alliance will make
that possible."

"This is a major collaboration between three research-intensive
European universities," said Professor Malcolm Grant, President and
Provost of UCL. "We are complementing our respective research and
higher education strengths to maximise our competitiveness. All three
institutions are making concrete and unprecedented financial and
personnel commitments. An example is the investment of one of our
world-class scientists to spend time in Paris catalysing progress in
the field. This agreement is entirely in line with our aspiration to
position UCL as a global university."

"The agreement between UCL and UPMC (which is the major French
science university partner of ENS) will enable the creation of
binational doctoral programmes offering students from both countries a
wide range of advanced training and tutors in the research groups of
the three partners," said Professor Gabriel Ruget, director of the ENS. "Our aim is for the quality of these programmes to attract the best
European, A merican and A sian students to our three campuses, on top
of the students we already receive via current institutional
relationships across the continents."

"The creation of the alliance between UCL, UPMC and ENS in the field
of neuroscience is of particular importance to our university," said
Professor Gilbert Béréziat, President of Université Pierre et Marie
Curie. "Although there are already a number of established links
between ENS and UPMC, this is the first time that an agreement of this
magnitude has been signed between two major French and British
universities. This is an important step in the development of higher
education and research in Europe, facilitating the movement of students
and enabling researc ers to tap in to a network of exceptional research
. L'Université Pierre et Marie Curie hopes that this agreement will
form the foundation for closer cooperation between UCL and UPMC and, in
the wider picture, symbolise a rapprochement between top educational
establishments in the UK and France."

Notes for Editors

1. For further information or to request interviews, contact Jenny Gimpel in the UCL media relations office on 020 7679 9739 or j.gimpel@ucl.ac.uk .